


The Baby

by Professor_Saber



Series: The Emma Jane Adventures [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Babies, F/M, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22357873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Professor_Saber/pseuds/Professor_Saber
Summary: Emma Jane Oswald meets her baby sister for the first time.Sequel to "The Namesake."
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald
Series: The Emma Jane Adventures [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/883713
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	The Baby

**Author's Note:**

> As with the prior entries in this series, there are references to Twelve and Clara's sex life (they can't seem to shut up about that subject!), but not enough, IMO, to boost the rating.

Emma Jane Oswald peered over the edge of the bassinet. Her baby sister, Sarah Petronella, now three hours and eleven minutes old, was sleeping soundly. Her eyes were now closed, of course, but they were a vivid, sparkling green, unlike either her father or her mother.

Emma thought of her own face—oval-shaped like her father, but with her mother’s nose and large, brown eyes.

“She doesn’t look like either of you,” she said.

Behind her in the TARDIS infirmary, her mother Clara was resting, while the Doctor was sitting in a chair next to her.

“She’s still a little young,” Clara said. “You didn’t really look like either of us this soon after you were born.”

“Oh,” Emma said. She was still watching her sister. “Why does she have green eyes? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You’re thinking of _human_ eyes,” the Doctor said. “The Gallifreyan genes work differently, and in combination with your mother’s remaining human ones, green eyes are actually rather likely.”

“Huh,” Emma said. “Can we pop ahead in the TARDIS to see what she’ll look like when she’s older?”

“Absolutely not!” the Doctor said.

Emma turned. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s on me,” the Doctor said, walking over to Emma and hugging her. “I’m sorry to be that abrupt.”

“Besides,” Clara said. “It’ll be fun discovering what she looks like through the natural course of time.”

“I guess,” Emma said, returning her father’s hug. She looked up at him. “I really didn’t look like either of you when I was born?”

“Not really,” the Doctor said, stepping aside and looking at Sarah. “Though I think her face is shaped like mine.”

“No it’s not!” Emma said. “It’s too round!”

While Clara laughed, the Doctor clarified, “I meant my fourth face.”

“Oh,” Emma said, looking at Sarah herself. “I guess. I’ve never met that face.”

“Hm,” the Doctor said. He paused. “Wait a minute, does that mean you’ve met—.”

At that moment, Sarah woke up and started crying.

Clara sighed and hopped out of the bed. “It’s okay, Sarah, Mummy’s coming!”

“Clara!” the Doctor said. “You should be staying in bed!”

“Oh, shut it,” Clara said, taking Sarah into her arms. “What is it, dear? Hungry? Bad dreams?”

Clara closed her eyes.

“Mummy?” Emma asked.

“Shh,” Clara said. “I’m trying to read her mind.” Clara nodded to herself and opened her gown. “Hungry it is. Don’t look away like that, Doctor.”

The Doctor, who was indeed looking away, mumbled.

Clara rolled her eyes as she began breastfeeding Sarah. “They’re _my_ boobs, Doctor. You see them all the time.”

“Oh, gross,” Emma said. She sighed and took a seat in a chair on the other side of the bed. “Please don’t talk about sex stuff now.”

Clara laughed and sat on the bed. “Don’t worry, Emma, I won’t.”

“Probably for the best,” the Doctor said, sitting next to Clara. “Once your mother gets started on that subject, she doesn’t stop easily.”

“Again: gross,” Emma said as Clara stuck her tongue out at the Doctor. Emma tapped the table next to the bed and a book materialized on it. “I don’t need _another_ sister or a brother twelve months from now.” A Time Lady pregnancy was twelve months long.

“Actually, women can’t get pregnant again so soon after birth,” the Doctor said. “We’d have to wait almost six years.”

“Really?” Clara asked. “Even _I_ didn’t know it was that long. You know, if I was still human, we could do it again almost immediately.”

“Biological safeguard,” the Doctor said. “If Time Ladies could get pregnant as rapidly as human women, they could have thousands of children.”

“That’d be a nightmare,” Emma said, leaning back in her chair and opening her book, a science fiction novel from the thirty-third century. She turned a few pages before closing it again. “It’s weird.”

“That Time Ladies have to wait six years between pregnancies?” Clara asked.

“That I have a sister.” She exhaled. “What’s it like?”

“I really don’t know,” Clara said. “I was an only child. Doctor?”

“What?”

Clara rolled her eyes. “What was it like having a sister? Or a sibling?”

He shrugged. “Irving was almost sixty years older than me. He really wasn’t around when I was a child. And I was already away at the Academy when my oldest sister was born.”

“Great,” Emma said, sinking into her chair. “Really great.”

“Are you okay, Emma?” Clara asked.

“I’m fine,” Emma said. “Is she still eating? Drinking? What’s the word?”

“No, I’m just holding her,” Clara said. She raised her eyebrows at the Doctor, who pointed at Emma with his head. “Are you sure you’re okay, Emma?” Clara asked.

“Yeah,” Emma said. She was staring at the floor. “I think so,” she added quietly.

Now Clara pointed her head at Emma.

“Hey,” the Doctor said, getting up and sitting next to Emma. “What are you nervous about? You’ll be a great big sister!”

“How do you know?” Emma asked.

The Doctor rested his hand on her shoulder. “I know you, Emma Jane Oswald. You’re a great daughter, and you’ll be a great sister.”

Emma let out a sob. “But how will I take care of her?”

“Take care of her?” Clara asked. “What do you mean?”

“I’m her big sister,” Emma said. “So I have a duty of care.”

The Doctor and Clara both raised an eyebrow. Emma didn’t know the history behind that phrase.

“You’re not alone, Emma,” the Doctor said. “You’re her sister, not her mother. We’re not going to foist her on you.”

“Oh,” Emma said.

“Is that what you’re worried about?” Clara asked.

“Little bit,” Emma admitted.

Clara whispered something to Sarah, then set her back down in the bassinet. She walked over to Emma and sat on the bed next to the Doctor.

“You don’t have to be scared, Emma,” she said. “Come on. What else are you worried about?”

Emma was silent for a moment.

“Emmy,” Clara said, smiling at her daughter, “am I going to have to read your mind?”

Emma grunted. “It’s silly.”

Clara took her hand. “It’s okay, Emmy.”

“What am I going to do about her looking up to me?” she asked. “I’m too young to be her hero!”

“Is that all?” Clara asked.

“What else would there be?” Emma asked, genuinely confused.

Clara and the Doctor glanced at each other.

“Nothing,” Clara said. “Emma Jane, you will be an amazing big sister. You don’t need to worry about her hero-worshiping you, believe me. She’ll love you, but you don’t need to worry about being perfect for her.”

“Oh,” Emma said. “Okay, then. Can I hold her now?”

“Of course,” Clara said.

“Stay here,” the Doctor said to his wife as he and Emma headed for the bassinet.

“I’m not an invalid,” Clara said, crossing her arms and leaning against her pillows.

“I’m not saying you are,” the Doctor said, taking Sarah from the bassinet. “Are you ready to meet your sister properly, Sarah?” The Doctor listened to her burbling. “She wants to meet you, Emma.”

“I don’t want to drop her,” Emma said as the Doctor began to hand her over.

“You won’t drop her,” the Doctor said. “Arms there and there. There you are.”

Emma held her newborn sister against her shoulder. “Can she understand me?”

“Yes, quite well!” the Doctor said.

“Okay,” Emma said. “Hi there, Sarah. It’s nice to meet you. Properly. I hope I’m going to be a good big sister to you.”

“She says she knows you’ll be,” the Doctor said.

Emma’s eyes narrowed at her father. “Did she really?”

“Of course she did!”

“Okay,” Emma said. She rocked Sarah in her arms. “Daddy, are you ever going to teach me how to speak Baby?”

“I’m sure we’ll get around to it,” the Doctor said.

“You know, now might be the time,” Clara said. “For both of us.”

“You can read her mind, though,” the Doctor said to her.

Clara shrugged. “I guess. Probably should’ve learned it when you were born, Emma.”

“Uh-huh,” Emma said. “Is it hard?”

“Well, I couldn’t really speak Baby till I was 900 or so, so I guess so,” the Doctor said.

“That’s weird,” Emma said. “Why would baby me more complicated than grown-up language?”

“Well, it was more that I didn’t get around to it,” the Doctor said.

Emma nodded and patted her sister. “Well, even if I can’t speak Baby, I’ll be the best big sister I can be, okay Sarah? Okay? Daddy, is she asleep now?”

“I think she is,” the Doctor said as Emma handed her over to him. “She’s had a bit of a day.”

“Day?” Emma said as the Doctor put her back in the bassinet. “She’s not even four hours old.”

“Some labor, though,” Clara said. “You know, for supreme beings and all, I’d think Time Lords would have better ways to handle the pain of childbirth.”

“That’s what looms are for,” the Doctor said as he moved the bassinet next to the bed.

“Wait,” Emma said. “Time Babies really _are_ weaved from magic looms? I thought you made that up!”

As Clara laughed, the Doctor said, “Looming is how you’re _supposed_ to do it. I don’t think I know anyone who ever did. Really, the people who run the looms spend most of their time falsifying the records so it looks like every child was made with them. It’s a lonely job; people assigned to it were usually being punished for some reason.”

“Why do I have the feeling that happened to you?” Clara asked.

“Once or twice,” the Doctor said. He sighed and looked at Sarah. “I can’t believe we did this again.”

“Uh-oh,” Clara said. “Those better not be second thoughts.”

“Second thoughts?!” Emma asked.

“I’m teasing him, Emmy.”

“Oh, okay,” Emma said, picking up her book again. She fidgeted for a moment. “Can I go now?”

“Yes, Emma,” Clara said. “You should get some rest.”

“Okay,” Emma said. “Bye, Sarah!”

Clara sighed and leaned against her pillows as soon as Emma was gone.

“You should rest, too, Clara,” the Doctor said, standing over her and stroking her cheek.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said. “At least she didn’t worry we’d love her any less. I think that’s what I’d worry about if I got a little sister when I was a kid.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll worry about that eventually. I did.”

“You’re not helping.”

He laughed. “Well, she’s a smart kid, Clara. She knows we’ll always love her.” He kissed her briefly. “I can’t believe we did this again.”

“Only have to wait six years for the third one,” Clara said. She smiled. “You really _aren’t_ having second thoughts, are you?”

“Of course not!”

“Good,” she said, taking his hand. She sighed and looked over at Sarah in her bassinet. “Thank you.”

“You’re thanking me?”

“Yep,” Clara said, smiling up at him. “Didn’t do it all on my own, after all.”

“That’s very true,” the Doctor said, pressing a kiss to her lips.

Clara yawned.

“You should really rest, Clara,” the Doctor said.

“I will.”

“That was some labor, after all.”

“Not really,” Clara said. “My mom was in labor with me for twenty-one hours.” She laughed again when the Doctor winced. “Does it ever last that long for Time Ladies?”

“No,” he said. “I don’t think, anyway. I think the Rani’s second wife had a sixteen hour labor; that’s the longest I’ve ever heard of.”

“Huh,” Clara said.

“I think the average is about four hours,” the Doctor said. “Do you know what the human average is, Clara?”

Silence.

The Doctor looked over; Clara had fallen asleep.

He kissed her forehead. “Rest now, my love. We have a long road ahead of us.”

END

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to [PonderingTheUniverse17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PonderingTheUniverse17/pseuds/PonderingTheUniverse17) for betaing!


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